OPTIWALL: A new yeast cell wall supplement that supports broilers during vaccinations

Coccidiosis remains a major threat in poultry production, and live coccidiosis vaccines are gaining ground as a strategy to help reduce antimicrobial and coccidiostat use. However, growing evidence reports negative impacts of the vaccines on broiler performance. A pilot study explored the potential of a new yeast cell wall (YCW) supplement, OPTIWALL, to mitigate the negative effects of coccidiosis vaccines on performance in broilers.¹

Experimental setup

The trial was conducted by the Lallemand R&D team in a French experimental farm in 2022 with three groups of one-day old mixed sex ROSS 308 broilers. One group served as the control, one group received the coccidiosis vaccine only, and the final group received the vaccine and OPTIWALL.

Chicks were vaccinated at day 0 and fed either a standard diet or the same standard diet supplemented with the YCW at the recommended dose (1kg/t in the starter diet, 500 g/t in the grower/finisher diet).

Confirming the deleterious effects of coccidiosis vaccine

The trial confirmed the vaccine reduced growth performance. Average daily gain (ADG) and body weight are significantly lower in the vaccinated birds vs. the control group (Figure 1).

Preserving feed conversion

OPTIWALL supplementation helped mitigate the negative impact of the vaccine on broiler performance. This positive effect is particularly visible on the feed conversion ratio (Figure 2).

OPTIWALL is a selected and optimized YCW developed by Lallemand Animal Nutrition to ensure consistent and guaranteed levels of mannan oligo saccharides (MOS) and β glucans, both documented to contribute to animal performance and natural defenses. Recent research presented at the World Poultry Congress in 2022 provided evidence supporting the mode of action of this specific YCW on animal performance through enhanced gut health.²

The authors showed OPTIWALL supplementation in broilers helped:

This suggests that OPTIWALL could help modulate inflammation in the gut, which would minimize the nutrient diversion required to address an inflammatory response, thereby benefiting birds’ performance.

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